Proving the Existence of Allah (SWT) to an Atheist

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by Dr. Zakir Naik

CONGRATULATING AN ATHEIST:

Normally, when
I meet an atheist, the first thing I like to do is to congratulate him and
say, " My special congratulations to you", because most of the people who
believe in God are doing blind belief - he is a Christian, because his
father is a Christian; he is a Hindu, because his father is a Hindu; the
majority of the people in the world are blindly following the religion of
their fathers. An atheist, on the other hand, even though he may belong to
a religious family, uses his intellect to deny the existence of God; what
ever concept or qualities of God he may have learnt in his religion may
not seem to be logical to him.

My Muslim
brothers may question me, "Zakir, why are you congratulating an atheist?"
The reason that I am congratulating an atheist is because he agrees with
the first part of the Shahada i.e. the Islamic Creed, ‘La ilaaha’
- meaning ‘there is no God’. So half my job is already done; now the only
part left is ‘il lallah’ i.e. ‘BUT ALLAH’ which I shall do Insha
Allah. With others (who are not atheists) I have to first remove from
their minds the wrong concept of God they may have and then put the
correct concept of one true God.

LOGICAL CONCEPT OF
GOD:

My first
question to the atheist will be: "What is the definition of God?" For a
person to say there is no God, he should know what is the meaning of God.
If I hold a book and say that ‘this is a pen’, for the opposite person to
say, ‘it is not a pen’, he should know what is the definition of a pen,
even if he does not know nor is able to recognise or identify the object I
am holding in my hand. For him to say this is not a pen, he should at
least know what a pen means. Similarly for an atheist to say ‘there is no
God’, he should at least know the concept of God. His concept of God would
be derived from the surroundings in which he lives. The god that a large
number of people worship has got human qualities - therefore he does not
believe in such a god. Similarly a Muslim too does not and should not
believe in such false gods.

If a
non-Muslim believes that Islam is a merciless religion with something to
do with terrorism; a religion which does not give rights to women; a
religion which contradicts science; in his limited sense that non-Muslim
is correct to reject such Islam. The problem is he has a wrong picture of
Islam. Even I reject such a false picture of Islam, but at the same time,
it becomes my duty as a Muslim to present the correct picture of Islam to
that non-Muslim i.e. Islam is a merciful religion, it gives equal rights
to the women, it is not incompatible with logic, reason and science; if I
present the correct facts about Islam, that non-Muslim may Inshallah
accept Islam.

Similarly the
atheist rejects the false gods and the duty of every Muslim is to present
the correct concept of God which he shall Insha Allah not refuse.

(You may refer
to my article, ‘Concept of God in Islam’, for more details)

QUR’AN AND MODERN
SCIENCE:

The methods of
proving the existence of God with usage of the material provided in the
‘Concept of God in Islam’ to an atheist may satisfy some but not all.

Many atheists
demand a scientific proof for the existence of God. I agree that today is
the age of science and technology. Let us use scientific knowledge to kill
two birds with one stone, i.e. to prove the existence of God and
simultaneously prove that the Qur’an is a revelation of God.

If a new
object or a machine, which no one in the world has ever seen or heard of
before, is shown to an atheist or any person and then a question is asked,
" Who is the first person who will be able to provide details of the
mechanism of this unknown object? After little bit of thinking, he will
reply, ‘the creator of that object.’ Some may say ‘the producer’ while
others may say ‘the manufacturer.’ What ever answer the person gives, keep
it in your mind, the answer will always be either the creator, the
producer, the manufacturer or some what of the same meaning, i.e. the
person who has made it or created it. Don’t grapple with words, whatever
answer he gives, the meaning will be same, therefore accept it.

SCIENTIFIC FACTS
MENTIONED IN THE QUR’AN:

for
details on this subject please refer to my book, ‘THE QUR’AN AND MODERN
SCIENCE – COMPATIBLE OR INCOMPATIBLE?

THEORY OF
PROBABILITY:

In mathematics
there is a theory known as ‘Theory of Probability’. If you have two
options, out of which one is right, and one is wrong, the chances that you
will chose the right one is half, i.e. one out of the two will be correct.
You have 50% chances of being correct. Similarly if you toss a coin the
chances that your guess will be correct is 50% (1 out of 2) i.e. 1/2. If
you toss a coin the second time, the chances that you will be correct in
the second toss is again 50% i.e. half. But the chances that you will be
correct in both the tosses is half multiplied by half (1/2 x 1/2) which is
equal to 1/4 i.e. 50% of 50% which is equal to 25%. If you toss a coin the
third time, chances that you will be correct all three times is (1/2 x 1/2
x 1/2) that is 1/8 or 50% of 50% of 50% that is 12½%.

A dice has got
six sides. If you throw a dice and guess any number between 1 to 6, the
chances that your guess will be correct is 1/6. If you throw the dice the
second time, the chances that your guess will be correct in both the
throws is (1/6 x 1/6) which is equal to 1/36. If you throw the dice the
third time, the chances that all your three guesses are correct is (1/6 x
1/6 x 1/6) is equal to 1/216 that is less than 0.5 %.

Let us apply
this theory of probability to the Qur’an, and assume that a person has
guessed all the information that is mentioned in the Qur’an which was
unknown at that time. Let us discuss the probability of all the guesses
being simultaneously correct.

At the time
when the Qur’an was revealed, people thought the world was flat, there are
several other options for the shape of the earth. It could be triangular,
it could be quadrangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, heptagonal, octagonal,
spherical, etc. Lets assume there are about 30 different options for the
shape of the earth. The Qur’an rightly says it is spherical, if it was a
guess the chances of the guess being correct is 1/30.

The light of
the moon can be its own light or a reflected light. The Qur’an rightly
says it is a reflected light. If it is a guess, the chances that it will
be correct is 1/2 and the probability that both the guesses i.e the earth
is spherical and the light of the moon is reflected light is 1/30 x 1/2 =
1/60.

Further, the
Qur’an also mentions every living thing is made of water. Every living
thing can be made up of either wood, stone, copper, aluminum, steel,
silver, gold, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, oil, water, cement, concrete,
etc. The options are say about 10,000. The Qur’an rightly says that
everything is made up of water. If it is a guess, the chances that it will
be correct is 1/10,000 and the probability of all the three guesses i.e.
the earth is spherical, light of moon is reflected light and everything is
created from water being correct is 1/30 x 1/2 x 1/10,000 = 1/60,000 which
is equal to about .0017%.

The Qur’an
speaks about hundreds of things that were not known to men at the time of
its revelation. Only in three options the result is .0017%. I leave it
upto you, to work out the probability if all the hundreds of the unknown
facts were guesses, the chances of all of them being correct guesses
simultaneously and there being not a single wrong guess. It is beyond
human capacity to make all correct guesses without a single mistake, which
itself is sufficient to prove to a logical person that the origin of the
Qur’an is Divine.

CREATOR IS THE AUTHOR
OF THE QUR’AN:

The
only logical answer to the question as to who could have mentioned all
these scientific facts 1400 years ago before they were discovered, is
exactly the same answer initially given by the atheist or any person, to
the question who will be the first person who will be able to tell the
mechanism of the unknown object. It is the ‘CREATOR’, the producer, the
Manufacturer of the whole universe and its contents. In the English
language He is ‘God’, or more appropriate in the Arabic language, ‘ALLAH’.

QUR’AN IS A BOOK OF
SIGNS AND NOT SCIENCE:

Let me remind
you that the Qur’an is not a book of Science, ‘S-C-I-E-N-C-E’ but a book
of Signs ‘S-I-G-N-S’ i.e. a book of ayaats. The Qur’an contains
more than 6,000 ayaats, i.e. ‘signs’, out of which more than a
thousand speak about Science. I am not trying to prove that the Qur’an is
the word of God using scientific knowledge as a yard stick because any
yardstick is supposed to be more superior than what is being checked or
verified. For us Muslims the Qur’an is the Furqan i.e. criteria to
judge right from wrong and the ultimate yardstick which is more superior
to scientific knowledge.

But for an
educated man who is an atheist, scientific knowledge is the ultimate test
which he believes in. We do know that science many a times takes ‘U’
turns, therefore I have restricted the examples only to scientific facts
which have sufficient proof and evidence and not scientific theories based
on assumptions. Using the ultimate yardstick of the atheist, I am trying
to prove to him that the Qur’an is the word of God and it contains the
scientific knowledge which is his yardstick which was discovered recently,
while the Qur’an was revealed 1400 year ago. At the end of the discussion,
we both come to the same conclusion that God though superior to science,
is not incompatible with it.

SCIENCE IS
ELIMINATING MODELS OF GOD BUT NOT GOD:

Francis Bacon,
the famous philosopher, has rightly said that a little knowledge of
science makes man an atheist, but an in-depth study of science makes him a
believer in God. Scientists today are eliminating models of God, but they
are not eliminating God. If you translate this into Arabic, it is La
illaha illal la, There is no god, (god with a small ‘g’ that is fake
god) but God (with a capital ‘G’).

Surah Fussilat:

"Soon We will
show them our signs in the (farthest) regions (of the earth), and in their
own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth. Is it
not enough that thy Lord doth witness all things?"